On Wednesday morning geared up with all possible equipment and warm clothes (as we were traveling to one of the coldest regions) we finally embarked on our trip to deliver the first two machines to two families in the region of Gegharkunik.

The road to Gavar, our first destination, is an interesting experience as you get to see the part of Lake Sevan that is off the beaten track.

With a lot of sea-buckthorn trees on both sides of the road and our conversation on different ways to facilitate the export of this exotic fruit and secure some additional income for the rural areas surrounding the Lake we were in Gavar, the vodka capital of Armenia.

Our first stop was the local Milk Collection Center of Ashtarak Kat, where the manager conducted a little tour of the facility. The Center collects milk from more than 25 surrounding communities and has a capacity of 10,000 liters.

After a conversation on the milk potential of the farms in the region and a coffee we set back on the road to visit our first beneficiary.

Spartak Apkaryan, 32, is a veteran of Karabakh war and has lost his right leg during the war. Together with his brothers he owns 25 cows and wants to expand and buy another 10. Milking of the 25 cows they currently own takes two-three hours every morning and the increase would make it impossible to milk all cows in the two hour time-frame in the morning and in the evenings.

On the other hand the increase of the livestock would make it possible to move from sustenance farming to a more sustainable and steady income generating activity and concentrate solely on animal husbandary.

After Spartak found out that he was approved to purchase the milking unit he decided to buy an electric generator to make sure that the cows are milked with the machine during the time when they take the herd to the pastures in the mountains.

A short training on how to use the machine and signing of the tri-lateral contract and we were ready to go, but had to yield to Spartak’s urgings to visit his house for a coffee.

The coffee naturally turned out to be a big table with a lot friends and vodka. After several toasts we were able to convince our hosts that we have another beneficiary waiting for us in Getik community which is at least 120 km away from Gavar.

To get to Getik we had to get to the opposite shore of Lake Sevan and cross the Geghama mountains towards east (this is where the warm clothes came handy).

Getik is a community of 157 households and is 2 km far from Armenia’s state border with Azerbaijan. Remoteness and lack of roads are serious constraints for the development of the community. The community has 800 hectares of pastures and 700 hectares of grasslands which makes it possible to develop animal husbandry. Although, the current number of cattle in Getik is not small (about 600) only a few farmers keep a commercially profitable number of cattle: more than 25.

Vardan Ghalechyan, 38, has two kids and is a native of Getik. He is currently building a new barn and intends to purchase more cattle adding to the 22 cows that he already owns. He says it’s going take sometime for the animals and him to get used to the automated milking, but the effort is totally worth it.

When the Ashtarak Kat and the Association of Development of Milk Production suggested him to apply for the milking unit he had some doubts as the milk yield decreases during the winters and it would be difficult for him to make the monthly payments on-time for the first three months. But with assurances of Ashtarak Kat that they will assist him and will provide him with an advance to help pay the winter months’ credit payments, he agreed. Vardan’s wife was the one who pushed harder for the deal and the expression on her face is probably partly because of the fact that she may not need to milk the cows herself any longer.

After the training, signing the contract and a coffee we were back on the road hoping that we will have many more trips like this increasing the number of farmers who with a small push are able to get on their feet.

P.S. Another development of the recent couple of weeks is that American Armenian Chamber of Commerce is considering to get involved in this project, as you may already know this project initially started by their financial support back in Armenia Fund.

If you have any questions and/or comments please do not hesitate to contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it